35-year old democrat Jason Kander is in the center of one of the most widely watched Senate races in the country.
His opponent: Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a 20-year member of congress.
Political experts believe this race, along with those in Pennsylvania and Nevada, could determine control of the senate after Nov. 8.
To get a sense of what makes Kander tick, 41 Action News joined him at the 22-days-until-the-election mark as he made campaign stops in the Show-Me State.
The day begins at 11 a.m. at a Library in St. Joseph where Kander is hosting a round table discussion focused on education.
"I feel if you go through a whole campaign and you don't learn anything, you did it wrong," said Kander during the 45 minute event.
Just 7 months prior, there was little spectacle when Kander received a labor union endorsement at a Kansas City church. That was the first time I met Kander.
41 Action News was one of two local news crews, and aside from Kander's team and roughly a dozen union members, there was no one else.
Now, Kander is enjoying the spoils of a tight race and support from the party establishment; capacity crowds, high profile visits from democrats like Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Joe Biden, and national news outlets following him like ABC's Nightline, whose cameras were also with Kander on this particular October day.
Part of that momentum can be chalked up to a television ad, billed by some as "the political ad of this election,"
where Kander assembles a rifle blindfolded and challenges Blunt to do the same.
After Kander wrapped the round table, we joined him in his family's SUV to the next stop. He's added over 100,000 miles to the GMC Acadia so far this election.
I asked him about his childhood.
"My parents were juvenile officers and my dad was a cop at night," said Kander who grew up in the Overland Park area.
He says he first learned his way around a gun around age 9 because of his father's occupation.
Kander tells us that his parents informally fostering kids from struggling families would shape his life philosophy.
"The reason that was so informative is because it's not like there was a conversation around the dining room table with my younger brother and I where my parents said 'Hey, we're thinking about doing this,' they just did it," said Kander. "I'm not sure what they were thinking at the time was setting the example of just you do the right thing even when it's not the same as the easy thing, but that's what my brother and I got from it."
The army veteran says that example had everything to do with him enlisting after 9/11 while he was still in law school just a month after marrying his wife Diana.
"It didn't even feel like a choice. It was just 'Hey, I know what the right thing is so I'm going to do the right thing,'" said Kander.
Kander met Diana, fittingly, in high school debate class.
"I sometimes joke it's the last argument with her that I won," said Kander.
The two have True, their 3-year-old son named after the Hamlet quote "To thy own self be true."
"Whatever expectations might be put on him because of what his parents do for a living or whatever else, we just want him to know that we want him to do whatever makes him happy, whatever he enjoys," said Kander.
Kander admits he began thinking about a life in politics before joining the military, though his experience overseas solidified the choice.
"That was the first time in my life I had been on the receiving end of decisions made by folks in public office and had it negatively impact me," said Kander. "Resources going elsewhere out of Afghanistan because of political decisions. That really provided insight for me, when the decision making by people in office is all about politics, it hurts people. There are people on the receiving end of those decisions."
Following a UAW visit in Pleasant Valley, Kander makes his last stop of the day to a plumbing and gasfitting training facility in Kansas City.
"This is how we've done it," said Kander. "When you're in a campaign, they'll say 'You know it's a marathon not a sprint?' and I always think to myself 'well yea but if I sprint the marathon, then I'll probably win' and that's really what we do."
41 Action News made multiple request for the same access to Senator Blunt. His campaign was unable to accommodate by deadline.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
